Nick Kyrgios and the underarm serve’s change of pace

SportLocation Tennis Desk · 27 Sept 2026

A montage of Kyrgios highlights centres on a disruptive choice: replacing the expected full serve with a softer ball into the court.

Nick Kyrgios’s underarm serve works by breaking the pattern. A receiver set well behind the baseline to meet a powerful delivery has to change direction quickly when the ball is instead nudged into the court.

That small switch is the point. It changes the receiver’s starting position from an advantage into a possible vulnerability, while making the next serve harder to read. The montage frames the tactic as a cheeky signature, but its sporting logic is simple: vary the pace and make the opponent account for more than one option.

The highlights jump between different matches and courts, rather than following one continuous contest. Across them, the recurring idea is not a single result but the serve’s capacity to disturb expectation. The ball toss and familiar routine invite the receiver to prepare for one delivery; the underarm option asks them to reset.